Machiel Spaan

Machiel Spaan was born on 5 December 1966 in Nijmegen. He studied architecture at the Eindhoven University of Technology from 1985 until 1992. Upon his master's degree in 1992 he founded M3H architecten, Amsterdam, of which he has remained owner together with architect Marc Reniers. Since 1994 Spaan has created more than forty apartment buildings in The Netherlands, mostly within the existing city of Amsterdam. His buildings have been selected for the Yearbook of Dutch Architecture in 2013/14[1] and 2015/16.[2] In 2016, his apartment building De Smaragd won the Zuiderkerk Prize, the most prestigious architecture prize awarded by the city of Amsterdam.[3]

Since 2000 Spaan has been a professor of architecture at the ArtEZ University of Arts and the Amsterdam University of the Arts respectively. From 2007 until 2012 he was Head of the Department of Architecture at the Amsterdam University of the Arts. As part of the Erasmus Programme he initiated, curated, and has taught a workshop series in seven European countries since 2008. In his educational projects, such as Tastenderwijs (2004), The Temporary Expert (2004–07), Building Tectonics (2007–14), Crafting the façade (2015-17), Spaan largely focusses on the creation of sensory experiences of architecture through engagement with materials and exploration of form. In collaboration with the landscape architect Bruno Doedens, he created the three environmental workshops Pannenland (2013),[4] Wadland (2014), and Windwerk (2016), engaging with the landscape in an ongoing process of transformation. A hallmark of Spaan's approach is an active engagement with the design question, taking confluence as a starting point. Questioning the physical, social, and historical context in an ongoing process towards innovation of the architectural form.[5]